


Blood/Wounds

by NerdChild644461217



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-29
Updated: 2020-07-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:28:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25588288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NerdChild644461217/pseuds/NerdChild644461217
Summary: It shouldn't have been hard, not for the two of them. But Katara could feel too much blood coming from Aang, and she'd used up all her water.
Relationships: Aang & Katara (Avatar), Aang/Katara (Avatar)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 57





	Blood/Wounds

**Author's Note:**

> Hello again! This is Kataang Week 2020 Day 3, Blood/Wounds. I should have said this in my other two, but I kept forgetting, I have not read any of the comics, nor seen Legend of Korra, so I apologize if there are any inconsistencies in between my little fics and them!

Three fire benders were hardly enough for Aang to even break a sweat. It was even less of a concern when Katara was there with him. What they hadn’t counted on, however, was the fourth member. The one who wielded a sword.

“Five years.” She muttered angrily as she worked blindly to try to wrap his wound, ripping off the hem of her skirt and trying to wrap it in the darkness. “Five years Ozai’s been gone and we still have to deal with this!?”

Aang was out of it, and there was nobody else around. She didn’t know who she was talking to, but it felt somewhat better just to blow out some steam. So much had gone wrong, in such a short amount of time. They left Appa in an Earth Kingdom village to investigate the underground tunnels that stretched out under it. The Earth Kingdom families that lived there had their suspicions they were being used to house rogue Fire Nation soldiers, still loyal to Ozai and Azula. They’d been right. But bending in an underground cave had proved disastrous. A rogue blast of fire had caused a cave in, blocking off the way they came. Katara and Aang still moved together, doing their best to round up the three Fire Nation soldiers. A scream from Aang shocked Katara, sending her wave of water towards the wall, instead of the man. The wall couldn’t take the strength of her blast, and began to crumble. The three soldiers ran, escaping the tumbling rocks, while the soldier that snuck up behind them chased after, just escaping before the last boulder hit home. Aang reached for her, and she ran, but she wasn’t fast enough to get there before he fell.

It had been an hour since then, maybe. She really wasn’t sure. In the dark of the cave, time seemed to lose meaning. Aang was still passed out, but in the last fifteen minutes, he’d started to move and make small sounds. It did wonders to help her nerves. This shouldn’t have been a problem, but her bending water had been spent in the battle, and neither of them thought they’d be down there long enough to bring water or any sort of supplies. She continued putting pressure on the wound. He’d landed on his face, which at the very least gave her easy access to the stab at the back of his shoulder. She’d worried about his head for a moment, but she couldn’t feel any lacerations or blood, and his nose felt fine, so she left his head for the moment. The actual wound wasn’t bad, she thought. She hoped. She still couldn’t see. She had no spark rocks, ‘ _Why would she, when she had Aang?_ ’she thought bitterly, and even if she did she doubted there was much to kindle in their earthen tomb. She shook the thoughts away. They weren’t helpful to her current issue. The blade hadn’t gone clean through, the puncture wound was just beneath his shoulder, but there was a lot of blood, she could feel that much. She would probably need to stitch it, if she could ever see again. She couldn’t see to dig anything out of their meager packs, and she wasn’t sure that they were on this side of the cave in anyway, so the hem of her skirt made for a makeshift bandage.

She let her head fall forward, closing her eyes, not that it made much of a difference. She didn’t sit like that for very long before she heard a “Katara?”

“Aang!” She jolted at the sound of his voice, the force of it putting more pressure on his wound, which he responded to with a pained groan. “Sorry!” She lessened the pressure of her arms. “Sorry! Sorry, sorry sorry.”

He took a couple seconds to breathe through it, and she let him, feeling guilty. “What happened?” He asked, once he was composed.

“There was a soldier we didn’t see. He came up and stabbed you. When you screamed, it scared me, and my wave hit the wall and caved in. All of the Fire Nation soldiers got out.” She replied. “You’ve been out about an hour, I think.” She answered his next question before he could ask it. If his shoulder wasn’t killing him, he’d smile at how well she knew him.

“Did you use all your water?” He asked gently.

She nodded, before realizing he couldn’t see her. “Yes.” She wanted to be mad at herself, but at the same time, how could they have known? She shook off her warring thoughts before adding, “I don’t think it’s that bad. Your wound, I mean. I can’t see, but it didn’t feel like it went all the way through. My biggest concern is infection, and that you lost so much blood, and we don’t have much to help you get some energy back.”

He groaned a little. “How far are we from the cave wall?”  
  
“Aang, I can see just as much as you can.” She responded with a slight laugh.

He gave her a laugh in return. “Right, right. Do you think I could sit up?”

She considered him for a minute. The way he was lying, he’d have to push himself up with his arms to sit, and that wasn’t going to happen. If they rolled him onto his back, he could sit up without his arms, but she’d lose her grip on his wound. “Why?” She finally asked. She wasn’t going to go through all the trouble if he wanted to sit for no reason.

Aang laughed at her. He could practically _hear_ the gears in her head turning. “I can get a flame going if I sit up. We could at least see what our surroundings look like.”

She still wasn’t sure that was worth it, with his shoulder being what it was, but she also knew it wouldn’t get any better if they just sat there in the dark. “Okay, but let me move you so you don’t use your shoulder to sit.”

Aang made a sound of compliance, and she gingerly took her hand off the bandage. Once it became clear that the clumsy knot she’d tied in the dark would be enough to at least hold the makeshift bandage in place, she let her hands fall away completely. She shifted to his other side, and braced her hands on his hip and uninjured shoulder. “This is probably going to hurt a bit, okay?”

Aang took a deep breath, and she could feel him steel himself before he responded. “Okay.”

Katara rolled him in one swift motion, knowing that any way to do it gingerly would just prolong his pain. He let out a pained scream that cut her to her core anyway. She shifted, sitting on her knees, one on either side of his face. She reached down to feel for the bandage, letting out a breath she didn’t know she was holding when she felt it still in place. “Do you think you’d do okay like this? I don’t want to move you any more than necessary.”

“Yeah. You’ll just have to tell me some of the things I can’t see.”

She stroked his face instead of responding. A wave of relief had suddenly washed over her, relief that he’d woken up. Ever since the last time he’d gone down in a cave…

She shook her head. She knew this wasn’t near as bad as then, and they’d both be okay. They just had to figure out a way out of this cave.

He turned his head slightly and kissed her hand, reassuring her in a way that his words couldn’t right now. He lifted his uninjured arm, and called a flame to his fingertips. She looked around, glad to see their small packs sitting a few feet away from where the rock slide had been. She tapped his cheek twice to get his attention. “Our bags are over there.” She said as she stood, intending to go get them.

He hummed, still looking around. The roof of the cave was shrouded in darkness, but he could still make it out. He guessed it was 60 feet above them. They were closer to the way they came than the way they were headed, but the wall that had once been the way they were going was only about thirty feet away. He turned his head to look at the other wall, but his vision was blocked by the remnants of Katara’s skirt. “What happened to your skirt?” He began to reach out to grab at it, but remembered his shoulder and forced himself to still.

“Huh?” Katara sounded confused. She looked down and lifted one leg out to see what he was talking about. “Oh!” she exclaimed, seeing the torn edges of her skirt. “I didn’t know where our packs were, and I couldn’t see to look for bandages if I did, so I used what I could feel to make a bandage.” She nodded towards his shoulder as she settled in her previous position.

He made a humming noise, both proud of her for thinking of that and a little saddened that she’d ripped one of the only things she had from the South Pole. It’s not like they were going there that often. He made a mental note to go as soon as they caught even the slightest break. Both because of her skirt and because he knew she missed home, although she’d never say it to him. She was very adamant about not trying to distract him from the peace that was still new and fragile.

He moved the hand holding the flame closer to his face, which was closer to where she was rummaging through the bags. She pulled out a small moon peach, and set it on his chest. “Eat that when you put the fire out.” She didn’t look at him to check for a response, and Aang smiled at her. He took the second to just look at her. Was it the best time to be oogling his girlfriend? No, probably not, but she was just _so_ beautiful, it was hard to take his eyes away. He let his eyes wander down, as much as they could with her sitting behind his head, anyway, and noticed stains on the collar of her shirt. He craned his neck a little, despite the dizziness it caused him, trying to get a better look at the dark stains that he could now see covered most of her. It was then that he realized her clothes and hands were both saturated with blood.

“Hang on.” He got her attention, turning her blue eyes up to meet his grey ones. “Where are you hurt?”

Her eyes glanced down to her hands, and she grimaced. “It’s not my blood, it’s yours.”

It was his turn to grimace.

She put the pack away, and turned to the next one. She pulled put bandages, and set them aside, before letting out a gasp, snapping Aang out of his reverie of how much oxygen the flame was taking up. “What?” He questioned, trying to turn his neck to see her, but a sharp pain from his shoulder stopped him. Suddenly, a water skin was in front of his face.

“A water skin! I forgot it was in there!” He could hear the grin in her words.

He smiled at the skin. “Help me sit up?” The skin was gone in seconds, and he could feel one hand on his good shoulder.

“Ready?” She asked. He nodded, pushing himself up with his core, feeling her soothing hands on his back, supporting him. He let the flame go out once he was in an upright position. “Aw.” He muttered, feeling and hearing the moon peach roll off his chest.

“What?” She asked from behind him, stilling her motions in case she’d hurt him.

“The moon peach rolled off me.”

Katara laughed at him, gently hitting her forehead against the back of his scalp. “We’ll find it when we get you healed.” She placed a kiss on the back of his head. He heard the water being coaxed out of the skin, and felt her taking off her bandage. “This is probably going to sting.”

He nodded, realized she couldn’t see him, and reached behind him with his good arm, grabbing for her knee. “Okay.”

The water was cold, and his body tensed when he felt the fibers of his muscles stitching themselves back together. He gritted his teeth against it, but managed to stifle any sounds that wanted to come out. It didn’t feel great, but it felt better than sitting there with an open wound did. He let out a sigh of relief when it was over, rolling his shoulder a little.

“Better?” Katara asked from behind him.

“Much better.” He breathed out. He shifted, using his newly healed shoulder to turn to face her. He felt for her, and once he found her, pulled her in for a solid kiss.

She threw her arms around him, thankful that he was going to be okay, and returned it. This was not something she’d been able to do when Azula hit him, but that didn’t mean she didn’t want to. Now though… She smiled into his kiss, before pulling him in closer and deepening it.

He smiled widely against her lips. “Thank you, Sifu Katara.”

She rolled her eyes at the name, not that he could see, but she also smiled back, a motion he could feel, and pulled him back to her. They simply let their lips move together in the dark, relishing the feeling of each other so close. It wasn’t until Aang’s hands started to wander up from her waist that she broke the kiss with a small laugh. “Let’s wait until we get out of here, okay, sweetie?”

Aang, who had wandered down her neck when she pulled away, groaned against her skin. “We’re in the dark, and we’re _alone._ How often does that happen?” Without waiting for her answer, he continued his feather light kisses against her neck.

She gave him a breathy laugh, fighting to keep herself together. It was true, with everything happening, they hardly ever had a moment just to themselves, always having to rush off to this delegate meeting or that ambassadorial dinner. By the time they got back to their rooms, they were too tired for anything but sleep. She had to admit it was appealing, and they had explored each other in some questionable locales, but on the ground in a dirt cave was where she’d have to draw the line. She found his chin, pulling his head back up and capturing his lips, commanding his attention. “I promise I’ll make it up to you. But you-“ She jabbed him lightly on the chest. “-lost a lot of blood and need energy. The fastest way to do that is to get you out of here.”

He groaned, letting his head fall back to the crook of her neck. “Fineeeeee.”

Katara rolled her eyes again, but couldn’t hold back a slight laugh at his feigned petulance. She gently nudged him more upright into a sitting position with her shoulder. Before she could move any further though, he pulled her to him. The kiss he gave her was fierce and hard, and much much too short for her liking. Aang called a flame back to his fingertips. He couldn’t squash the swell of pride when her face lit up, cheeks and lips flushed. He leaned in to give her one last lingering kiss, which deepened her blush.

He gave her a cocky grin as he pulled away, but his attention was suddenly pulled to the side of her. “AHA!”

“WHAT!?” She jumped, pulling more water out and forming it into a whip, looking behind her for an enemy that Aang had seen.

Instead of responding, he stretched his body over her, reaching out for something a little behind her. He produced something small and round when he sat back. “Found the moon peach!”

She gave him a half-hearted glare, and flicked him gently with the end of her whip. “Quit scaring me.”

Aang at least had the decency to look sheepish. “Sorry.” He bit into the peach, watching as she stood up and dusted herself off.

“It’s fine, sweetie. Just eat it while I look for something to burn. And drink some of the water.” He hummed in lieu of replying, too concentrated on getting some of his energy back. He knew he’d need it if he was going to lift the rocks that kept them prisoner.

After poking around the cave, she decided the bandages would have to do, and gathered them into a small pile. “Which side do you think would be easier to lift?” She looked over at him, finishing the last of his peach. “I don’t want you to put too much strain on yourself just yet.”

Aang, having polished off the last of his snack, looked at each wall. He wanted to continue the way they were going. Maybe they could catch up with the Fire Nation soldiers… and what exactly? Get attacked again? He shook his head. Katara would kill him herself. Besides, the wall that blocked the way they came in had less debris. He could probably just pull some of the stones from the bottom and everything else would come down enough for them to get out. He nodded his head towards it as he took a drink from the skin. “This one, probably.”

Katara nodded at him, and began setting up the small pile of kindling closer to that wall. He continued to drink while she did so, finally feeling like he could stand once she was done. “This won’t last too long, but it will give you some light so you’re not trying to bend two things at once. Hurry, but don’t overdo it.” She added as an afterthought. Aang stood up and walked towards her. Katara stepped back, and Aang let the small flame from his hands go to her pile of bandages, lighting them.

As soon as he had both hands free, he began shifting the stones, moving them out of the way. He’d only been working a minute or two when they shifted enough to allow the two of them passage back out into the world. A gust of air came in, dousing their small fire, but Aang lit another, keeping this one in his palm. Katara, who had gathered their packs while he worked, came up beside him, smiling at him as she handed his back. He slung it over his back and grabbed her hand as they walked towards their new exit. Katara was covered in blood, and Aang would have to be gentle on his wound for a few days, but they were okay, and they were headed out together. Katara smiled a little, and decided that that was all they really needed, to be walking out together. 


End file.
